Li Na, China's Unlikely Champion

Consider the improbable story of Li Na, the French Open champion and the first player from China to win a Grand Slam singles title. She started to play the game at age 9, quite late for a professional. She never played on a true clay court as a child—she described China's "sand" courts as "totally different" from top-grade clay and so slippery that they made her feel like she was playing ice hockey. Her father, a former badminton player, died when she was 14 and by 2002, at the age of 20, she had retired to study journalism. "I really didn't think I could be a good player," she said.

Li didn't play for two years and at school, no one knew she had ever picked up a racket before. "You have a choice, which sport you want," she said. "So the friend say, 'I will choose tennis,' and I say, 'No sorry, I don't know how to play the tennis.'"